How to Build a FLYING SAUCER Declassified documents reveal Air Force’s plan to build a UFO Here's a quirky find from the National Archives: the United States Air Force's 1956 plan to build a saucer-shaped aircraft that would zip across the skies with the greatest of ease. As the Archives explain of "Project 1794, Final Development Summary Report": The Air Force had contracted the work out to a Canadian company, Avro Aircraft Limited in Ontario, to construct the disk-shaped craft. According to the same report, it was designed to be a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) plane designed to reach...

2010: After unsuccessful attempts to obtain Western electronics for its new JF-17 jet fighter, Pakistan has announced that it will use Chinese gear instead. China initially offered to fit out the JF-17s with electronics and weapons, but the Pakistanis were leery of the untried Chinese equipment. Meanwhile, India and the United States pressured France not to allow Pakistan to buy advanced radars and other electronics for the Pakistani built JF-17 jet fighter. This was because China did most of the development on the JF-17, and Chinese personnel would be involved in any effort to install French electronics in these aircraft....

The Navy has been seeking its “Holy Grail” free electron laser (FEL) weapon for a while now, but it would rather you think of it more as a multipurpose laser platform than a death ray. While the Navy’s ship-borne FEL, currently under development at Boeing, will certainly be used to knock incoming threats out of the sky, naval officers really want a platform that can also be used for tracking, communications, target designation, disruption, time-of-flight location, and a variety of other tasks. Such a multipurpose tool certainly makes the Navy’s laser system seem a more practical use of funding, and...

In Afghanistan, perhaps more so than in a small Polish town, it’s important to know exactly where you’re going. So you can imagine the frustration felt by Polish troops serving in Afghanistan when faulty GPS equipment told them that they weren’t in Afghanistan, but in one of several African nations or back home in the small town of Zielona Gora in Western Poland. The equipment, according to one Polish officer quoted in the Polish press, has caused some units to become completely disoriented in the Afghan frontier, a place where coalition soldiers really don’t want to be wandering around aimlessly....

Intelligent advanced aircraft is one thing, but if the Air Force wants to be in prime warfighting condition, its pilots had better come with advanced weaponry, too. ThatÂ’s why the Air Force wants neuroweapons that can enhance airmenÂ’s performance, while degrading the mental states of their foes. The Air Force Research LaboratoryÂ’s 711th Human Performance Wing just updated a call for proposals that examine Â“Advances in Bioscience for Airmen Performance,Â” according to Wired's Danger Room. The initial announcement came out last November, but no one has yet come up with new stimulants that help airmen focus, or models that fuse...

The military dimension of Sino-Russian ties, particularly arms sales, has been deteriorating since 2006-07. While that decline partly reflects the growing prowess of China's defense industrial base, a major part stems from Russia's growing apprehension about China's growing capabilities and anger over its wholesale piracy of Russian weapons' designs and ensuing competition with Russia for third party markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The unlicensed copying of military arms has made China a formidable military player and a redoubtable competitor with Russia in emerging defense markets. For instance, Russian experts profess surprise at how fast China has been able...

Every May, Russia proudly marches its biggest, fiercest-looking military hardware across Red Square in a show of force one might expect from one of the biggest militaries in the world. Tanks, missile launchers and rockets worth billions of dollars thunder across the cobblestones. But in a small field outside Moscow, two men wheel out a small package that could save the Russian military millions and prevent it from needing to deploy that fearsome arsenal. The men fire up an air pump and within minutes there stands a towering S-300 anti-aircraft missile launcher. Russia's Defense Ministry is in talks with a...

Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Tuesday it had signed several contracts with the French defense firm Thales on the transfer of technology and delivery of communications equipment for Russian armored vehicles. "The first contract involves transfer of technologies to Russia, which now will have the right to produce officially licensed thermal imagers at Vologda Optical and Mechanical Plant," said Igor Sevastyanov, Rosoboronexport deputy director general. "The second contract provisionally allows Russia to bring in communications equipment for integration into Russian armored vehicles for testing," Sevastyanov said. He added that the communications equipment would be mounted on T-90 tanks and...

To the untrained eye, U.S. Army radar-generated maps may look like a bird's-eye view of a city at night; however, these images contain useful intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information that reveal concealed objects by penetrating foliage, buildings and some terrain while overcoming camouflage, concealment and deception techniques. These maps, which highlight boundaries not visible to traditional electronic sensors, are made possible by the U.S. Army's Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter Concealment Enabled Radar, or TRACER. Developed by the Research, Development and Engineering Command's communications and electronics center, TRACER is a mid-range, long wavelength synthetic aperture radar system that provides all-weather persistent...

The Rolling Green hills of Sonora, California, no longer lure prospectors with the promise of gold, but for Matthew Hagerty the draw is just as powerful: They’re a secluded hideaway ideal for perfecting his military invention, called SmartSight. Ten years in the making, SmartSight is a gun-cam system that allows a soldier to see around corners and shoot targets without putting himself in the line of fire. It consists of a wireless video camera mounted to the rail of an M4 or .308 SOCOM carbine, a small computer worn on a military vest, and a thumbnail-size color head-up display affixed...

Turkey has been marketing its short-range air defense system to Arab League states. Turkey's military-owned Aselsan has been briefing Arab militaries on the company's Pedestal-Mounted Air Defense System (PMADS). The system, based on the U.S.-origin Stinger surface-to-air missile, was designed for very short-range air defense, particularly the protection of critical sites and military bases. "There is interest [in the system] within the region," an executive said. Aselsan displayed PMADS at Sofex-2010, which took place in Amman, Jordan on May 10-13. Executives said Jordan's military has been examining the feasibility of procuring the system, which could also fire French- and Russian-origin...

military did no advance testing on a specific type of military GPS receiver that had problems picking up locator signals after a change in ground-control software, the Air Force said Monday. The Air Force tested other equipment, but none of it contained the type of receiver that was unable to lock on to Global Positioning System satellites after the change, said Joe Davidson, a spokesman for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The manufacturer of the receivers, Trimble Advanced and Military Systems, said it ran its own advance tests using specifications from the Air Force GPS Wing and...

Satellite photos recently revealed that the Chinese Navy has received J-11 jet fighters. These are illegal Chinese copies of the Russian Su-27. This plagiarism has been a source of friction between Russia and China for over five years. It all began, legally, in 1995, when China paid $2.5 billion for the right to build 200 Su-27s. Russia would supply engines and electronics, with China building the other components according to Russian plans and specifications. But after 95 of the Chinese built aircraft were built, Russia cancelled the agreement. They claimed that China was using the knowledge acquired with this Su-27...

The Army says it is recalling 44,000 advanced combat helmets that have been issued to soldiers worldwide because they do not meet military specifications. The Army said in a statement Friday that the risk to soldiers wearing the helmets is still being determined. New helmets are being issued to anyone who has a defective one. The recall amounts to 4 percent of all advanced combat helmets issued by the Army. The helmets are made by ArmorSource LLC. The company, based in Hebron, Ohio, is a leading maker of combat headgear for the military and police. The army said tests showed...

Taiwan needs as many as 66 more Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter jets to counter China’s growing air defense and attack capability, according to a report by a pro-Taiwan advocacy group. “China’s rapid, sustained military modernization over the last two decades has steadily eroded Taiwan’s relative capabilities in maintaining a viable air defense,” the U.S.- Taiwan Business Council said yesterday in a report released in Washington. Taiwan’s request in 2006 to buy the fighters wasn’t pursued by the administration of President George W. Bush and so far hasn’t been backed by President Barack Obama in the face of opposition from...

The Hudson Institute’s Richard Weitz, posting over at Second Line of Defense, says Russian arms sales to China are drying up as Chinese industry increasingly builds its own high-tech weaponry and Beijing objects to Russian technology transfer restrictions. Since 2001, Russia has sold more than $16 billion worth of arms to China, with yearly sales peaking at $2.7 billion, he writes; accounting for nearly 40 % of all major Russian arms sales. In recent years, however, things have changed: “Since 2005, the PRC has stopped purchasing Russian warships or warplanes and has ceased signing new multi-billion arms sale contracts… The...

Regina Dugan last summer took over as chief of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In a profile of the 47-year-old PhD in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, The New York Times noted that in recent years DARPA has lost some of the luster it gained over decades as an agency that develops cutting edge military technologies that also filter into the consumer and civilian arena. The agency has been criticized in recent years for shifting its focus too closely to tools and technologies that could have an immediate impact for U.S. soldiers on the front...

U.S. military technologies such as guided bombs and night vision rely heavily upon rare earth elements supplied by China, and rebuilding an independent U.S. supply chain to wean the country off that foreign dependency could take up to 15 years, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Both "light" and "heavy" rare earth elements represent a family of minerals found in commercial products ranging from TV displays to cell phones, as well as green technologies such as hybrid electric motors and wind turbines. For example, the rare earth element neodymium is very magnetic and is...

Despite a legal pact designed to slow the proliferation of unmanned systems, the Pentagon hopes to export U.S. drone technology to allies, Reuters reported. Defense Secretary Robert Gates testified before a Senate hearing that it was in the United States’ interest to share drone technology with allies despite the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a pact signed by at least 34 countries. "There are other countries that are very interested in this capability and frankly it is, in my view, in our interest to see what we can do to accommodate them," Gates said. The U.S. military's demand for unmanned...

In 2018, the U.S. Navy hopes to take a major step toward fielding a cyber-attack system on a tactically survivable, fighter-size aircraft. Although researchers are cautious about discussing their cyberwarfare and electronic attack projects, one company states that it is "developing a weapon system that can deliver cyber-effects through free space into an aperture." That opaque explanation refers to a cyber-weapon, sized for a tactical aircraft or UAV, that can create a long-range data stream -- most likely from an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) emitter. The emitter will function both as radar and the source of these uniquely tailored...

The prospect of a nuclear deal for Pakistan gives India less sleepless nights than the fact that the US, in an attempt to "incentivise" Pakistan, is piling on sophisticated military equipment that have little to do with counter-terrorism but more to do with targeting India. With the first lot of 18 F-16C/D Block 50/52 combat aircraft due to be delivered in the next few months, India is raising the diplomatic pitch against the transfer of such equipment to Pakistan. While defence minister A K Antony has articulated these concerns, this has been the subject of a lot of diplomatic traffic...

of electrical energy to repel projectiles away from an armored vehicle, British scientists say. Researchers at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, better know as "Dstl" and located at four sites in England, say it is possible to corporate material known as supercapacitors into armor that would turn a vehicle into a kind of giant battery, The Daily Telegraph reported. Dstl is the research and development arm of the Ministry of Defense. The report said when a threat from an incoming projective is detected, the energy in the supercapacitor can be rapidly pushed into the metal plating on the outside...

For the first time, after a decade of development, the U.S. Air Force fired its ALT (Airborne Laser Testbed) laser while in flight and hit a rapidly (1,800 meters a second) rising ballistic missile. The laser beam took several seconds to weaken the missile structure, and cause it to come apart. This test came only eight months after the smaller Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) was fired in flight for the first time. The target was some lumber on the ground, which was hit. The ATL weapon was carried in a C-130H four engine transport. Five years ago, manufacturers of combat...

Funded in part by Air Force Research Laboratory Manufacturing Technology Small Business Innovation Research contracts, FOPAT Production is producing breakthrough foam patterns for casting foundries and other manufacturers of aerospace components. The advanced patterns will improve casting processes by replacing wax, a known problematic material, with foam. Estimates indicate the development will generate $5 million in yearly energy savings, as well as $140 million in productivity, material savings, and scrap reduction. The work also supports goals of ManTech's Advanced Manufacturing Propulsion Initiative, which seeks to transform the Air Force propulsion supplier base in order both to assure industrial capability and...

India's Arjun tank will battle for its life against a squadron of Russian T-90s in trials likely to determine the controversial vehicle's future. The long-awaited trials, which start in March, will pit the 14 indigenous Arjuns against the 14 T-90s, day and night for a month, according to the national Business Standard newspaper. The 24th Infantry Division stationed in Bikaner will conduct the trials in the rugged deserts of the northern state of Rajasthan, around the cities of Bikaner, Suratgarh and also Pokhran, the site of India's first nuclear bomb test in May 1974. The performance of tanks and their...

Those splendid brainboxes at DARPA - the Pentagon's in-house bazaar of the bizarre - have outdone themselves this time. They now plan an entirely uncrewed, automated ghost frigate able to cruise the oceans of the world for months or years on end without human input. The new project is called Anti-submarine warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), and is intended to produce "an X-ship founded on the assumption that no person steps aboard at any point in its operating cycle". The uncrewed frigate would have enough range and endurance for "global, months long deployments with no underway human maintenance", being...

The U.S. Army is sending the troops a new generation of "see-through-the-wall" devices. The Eagle series of sensors use low power ultra-wideband radio waves to detect what is behind walls (except metal ones). These devices weigh 3.5-6 pounds (there are three versions) and all are handheld. The M model can detect motion, of people or animals who are up to six meters behind a 20cm concrete wall. The P model can see into the ground (3-4 meters down) and detect objects, as well as tunnels. The V model produces sharper images, but at shorter ranges. All these devices use rechargeable...

BAE Systems has unveiled its brand new howitzer for deployment in the U.S. Army and eventually for military customers elsewhere. The next-generation howitzer is an upgraded Paladin Integrated Management vehicle in the M-109 Paladin family of vehicles, a combat-proven weapon system manufactured by BAE Systems in York, Pa. It was not immediately clear when the weapon would be marketed outside the United States, currently its major user. Previous PIM models are known to be operational with the Israeli army, and usage has been reported in Kuwait and Taiwan. Congressional representatives, community leaders and BAE employees attended a ceremony at the...

U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin hopes to sign an agreement with Israel on its F-35 fighter jet by the end of the year, and targets 75 to 100 jets for the deal, an executive said on Friday. "Israel is extremely interested and we very much hope that we will make a deal with Israel for F-35s this year," Patrick Dewar, a corporate vice president at Lockheed Martin told Reuters at the Bahrain air show. "When we talk about Israel, somewhere between 75 and 100 jets," he said, when asked to estimate the size of the market for F-35s. Dewar also...

The US Defense Department is slowing Lockheed Martin Corp's $300 billion F-35 fighter jet program, a multinational effort, to stabilize its schedule and costs, according to draft budget documents obtained by Reuters. The department's fiscal 2011 budget will request $10.7 billion to continue the F-35's development and to procure 42 aircraft, a budget overview shows. Overall, the plan is to cut planned purchases by 10 aircraft in fiscal 2011 and a total of 122 through 2015. The Pentagon “has adjusted F-35 procurement quantities based on new data on costs and on likely orders from our foreign nations partners and realigned...

Israel has developed a new non-lethal weapon; the Thunder Cannon. Light enough to be mounted in a cart, it uses a new Pulse Detonation Technology that combines LPG (liquefied natural gas) with air to create a sonic boom in a cannon type barrel. Each burst moves forward at 2,000 meters per second and lasts 300 milliseconds. The cannon generates 60 to 100 bursts per second. One 27 pound (12kg) canister of LPG can create 5,000 bursts. A PDA size control unit does the mixing and detonation. The cannon is effective, at hitting people with these sonic bursts, at ranges of...

The recent Chinese missile defense test is just one of many signs that anti-ballistic missile systems are the “must have” military fashion accessory of 2010. For China the need for such weapons is obvious: the only neighbors they have who lack a real or potential short- to medium-range missile capability are Laos, Burma, and perhaps Mongolia. All of their other neighbors, especially Russia, North Korea. and India, have been building up their rocket forces at a rapid rate. For both Europe and China, any effective BMD requires space-based early warning sensors similar to the US Defense Support Program satellites based...

The U.S. Navy is playing catch-up by equipping some of its F-18E fighters with IRST (Infa-Red Search & Track). The first F-18E Block IIs are entering service, carrying an IRST pod. IRST uses a high resolution infrared (heat sensing) radar to positively spot and identify a potential aerial target (using a 3-D model of the target in its computer memory.) This is similar to the ATFLIR (Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared) pods used to spot surface targets. FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared Radar) has been around since the 1980s, and as the technology became more powerful, it was possible to spot...

Russia's army will get new missiles and nuclear submarines from 2010, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday, stressing the need to replace the ageing military arsenal. "Next year, the army will get 30 ballistic missiles...five Iskander (missile) systems, some 300 new armoured vehicles, 30 helicopters, 28 fighter planes, three nuclear submarines, a ship, as well as 11 spacecraft," Medvedev said in his annual address to the nation. "These measures will allow our armed forces and our allies to deal with any threat," he told officials in a speech at the Kremlin. Much of Russia's military equipment dates back to Soviet...

Active Denial Technology is a breakthrough non-lethal technology that uses millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy to stop, deter and turn back an advancing adversary from relatively long range. It is expected to save countless lives by providing a way to stop individuals without causing injury, before a deadly confrontation develops. The technology was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. Approximately $40 million has been spent on this technology over the past ten years. In July 2005 it was reported that the Active Denial System would be deployed to Iraq before the end...

A photograph taken in Beavercreek has some hoping it's proof of top-secret 'pulse jet' tests. BEAVERCREEK — A Beavercreek man's photograph of an unusual aircraft condensation trail has sparked a high-flying debate among scientists and aviation fans over whether the Air Force or NASA is flying an aerospace vehicle with an exotic new propulsion system. The photo of the vapor trail, taken Nov. 10 by amateur meteorologist Bill Telzerow from his backyard, shows a distinctive "doughnuts-on-a-rope" shape. The photo has raised questions about whether an experimental propulsion system that uses pulse detonation engine technology is being tested here. The propulsion...

While various setbacks in the war on terror underscore the limits of American power, it is important not to lose sight of the bigger picture: we live in the age of American supremacy. Part of the explanation for U.S. dominance surely lies in America’s economic strength. But Europe and Japan are similarly wealthy, yet their global sway lags far behind. What they lack is America’s superior military capabilities. In the words of Gregg Easterbrook: “The American military is now the strongest the world has ever known, both in absolute terms and relative to other nations; stronger than the Wehrmacht in...

Undercover U.S. government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided-missile radar test sets from a Defence Department contractor. Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, said a report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armour inserts used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance. "The body armour could...

A computer technician has pleaded guilty in a plot to ship to Iran more than 100 pressure sensors that could be used as components in explosive devices, authorities said Wednesday. Mohammad Fazeli, 27, entered his guilty plea Monday to one count of violating a U.S. embargo prohibiting trade with Iran, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop one count each of conspiracy and making false statements. Fazeli, who remains free on $50,000 bond, faces up to 10 years in federal prison when he is sentenced Aug. 7. In...

LOS ANGELES MAN CHARGED FOR ATTEMPTING TO SHIP SENSITIVE TECHNOLOGY TO IRAN Joint ICE-FBI probe uncovers scheme involving illegal export of pressure sensors LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles man was arraigned in federal court here yesterday for his role in a scheme to illegally export more than 100 Honeywell sensors to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). According to the manufacturer, the sensors, which detect the pressure of liquid or gas, could potentially be used to detonate explosive devices. Mohammad Fazeli, 27, was arrested March 16 at his Los Angeles apartment by agents with...

DETECTIVE Danny Johnson was on patrol outside Tampa, Florida, when a report came through of a possible shooting in a junkyard three blocks away. Arriving on the scene, he found an elderly man sitting on a tractor, with a large hole in his leg that was bleeding profusely. Realising it would be some time before the ambulance arrived, Johnson opened a packet of sand-like material and poured it into the wound. Within seconds the bleeding had practically stopped, and the man survived. "The medic told me that had I not put the substance in there, the guy would probably have...

Separation anxiety: The wall between military and commercial technology Seattle Times 01/22/06 author: Dominic Gates Last April in Everett, in a tense meeting with an investigator sent by Boeing headquarters, a small group of 787 engineers dropped a bombshell. The engineers, veterans of Boeing's work on the B-2 stealth bomber two decades ago, told investigator Rick Barreiro that technology and know-how developed for that secretive military program would be used in manufacturing the company's newest commercial jet. The engineers refused to sign forms declaring that the 787 program is free of military data. One said he feared signing would leave...

Three Apache Longbow helicopters arrive in Israel as part of USD 640 million defense-upgrade project; equipped with advanced night-vision system; remaining choppers to arrive by the end of 2006. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) received three Apache Longbow helicopters Sunday as part of a newly-established 20-helicopter squadron. The highly advanced chopper can fly in all weather conditions and at nighttime, as it comes equipped with a night-vision system that transfers images directly to the pilot's eyes, a senior IAF officer said. Another major advantage of the chopper pertains to its radar, which permits the detection of more than one target...

Boeing Wins Army Modernization Contact 1 hour, 46 minutes ago Add Business - Reuters to My Yahoo! WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co. has won a $14.92 billion contract to design and test the tanks and weapons of the future as part of the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s plan to modernize the U.S. Army, The Washington Post reported on Friday. Related Quotes DJIANASDAQ^SPC 8713.141551.38946.67 +65.32+16.480.00 delayed 20 mins - disclaimerQuote Data provided by Reuters The Pentagon's Defense Acquisition Board approved the contract, moving into the second phase of the Future Combat System late on Wednesday, the newspaper reported, citing a...

Latest Technology Joins CENTCOM Operations United States Army Vessel (USAV) Theatre Support Vessel (TSV-1X) Spearhead departs from a port within the Central Command Area of Responsibility on Jan. 15, 2003. The 98 meter USAV, with an average speed of 40+ knots, will be utilized on missions to maximize its speed and flexibility to transport troops and cargo. Spearhead is currently forward deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.